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Re: The phrase 'I'd like...'

From:Paul Bennett <paul-bennett@...>
Date:Sunday, January 11, 2004, 5:37
On Sun, 11 Jan 2004 01:37:29 +0100, Trebor Jung <treborjung@...> wrote:

> what's a conditional mood doing modifying a verb meaning 'to think > favourably of (1)'?
Gosh. There's a question. The "optative" mood is implies "want to", and further, that the subject of the verb and the subject of the want are the same. The "imperative" sometimes implies that the subject of the want is the 1st person and the subject of the verb is the second person, certainly that the subject of the want is 1st person. In languages which distinguish it, the "jussive" is basically an imperative with a 3rd person main-verb subject. There's also the "hortative" (1st person want, 1st plus 2nd person action, e.g. "Let's go!"). Hmm. Basically, something that ought to be declined like a verb (as happens with causatives a lot) has recieved a bunch of different names depending on its declension, kinda being named lexically instead of morphologically. It's the only phenomenon I can think of right now that is named in such a way. Anyone know any others? I suppose Case might be a borderline example, but I haven't thought that idea through yet, so don't quote me. Paul